As the dust of the skirmishes between Hausa and Igbo traders begins
to settle, information available to us indicates the the Governor of
Plateau State, Barr. Simon Lalong is demonstrating exemplary leadership
by reaching out the the Igbo and Hausa communities for urgent peace
talks.
This information was confirmed to ViewPointNigeria by one of the
Governor’s aides who said “earlier this evening, Governor Lalong reached
out to both communities and a meeting is currently being slated for
tomorrow morning at the Governor’s office”.
It would be recalled that earlier this evening ViewPointNigeria
reported of tension between the two communities following happenings in
Rivers state and Abia. Reports suggest that in the early evening hour,
several youths attacked Igbo traders in Katako, Ahmadu Bello Way, Rwang
Pam, Chobe Junction and Ali Kazaure areas of Jos North in what were said
to be reprisal attacks. The traders in turn staged a
mini-protest/defense and in the process, stones and hand-missiles were
hurled etc.
However, soldiers and security operatives were swift in restoring calm, there by bringing an end to the debacle.
At the time of filing this report, calm had returned to the entire
area – albeit, the state Governor imposed a dusk to dawn curfew to
forestall any further breakdown of law and order.
With the truce being called by the Governor tomorrow, the expectation
is that some sort of resolution and understanding will be achieved.